DOCSLIB.ORG

Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions Leor Zmigrod1,2,3 & Amit Goldenberg4 Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 2Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 3Churchill College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK 4Harvard Business School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA Contact: Dr Leor Zmigrod, [email protected], +44 7522193934. Paper accepted and in press at Current Directions in Psychological Science. Can be tempo- rarily cited as: Zmigrod, L., & Goldenberg, A. (2020). Cognition and Emotion in Extreme Political Action: Individual Differences and Dynamic Interactions. Current Directions in Psychological Sci- ence. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/w3hj6 1 Abstract Who is most likely to join and engage in extreme political action? While traditional theories have focused on situational factors or group identity attributes, an emerging science illustrates that tendencies for extreme political action may also be rooted in individuals’ idiosyncratic cognitive and affective dispositions. This paper synthesizes cutting-edge evidence demonstrating that an individual’s cognitive and affective architecture shape their willingness to support ideological violence. From a cognitive perspective, traits such as cognitive rigidity, slower perceptual strategies, and poorer executive functions are linked to heightened endorsement for ideological violence. From an emotional standpoint, characteristics associated with emotional reactivity and impaired emotional regulation, such as sensation-seeking and impulsivity, can facilitate readiness for extreme political action. The review hones in on the roles of cognitive rigidity and sensation-seeking as traits heightening proclivities for extreme pro-group behavior, and recommends that future research should aim to assess cognition-emotion interactions to reveal different sub-profiles of political actors. A theoretical framework focused on cognitive and affective information-processing traits – and their interactions – opens up tractable empirical questions and a future research agenda. Identifying subsets of ideologues is an endeavor with potential to inform the design of evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing ideological extremism and fostering social understanding. Extreme political action; ideology; cognition; emotion; political psychology; cognition- emotion interactions 2 Psychological Theories of Extreme Political Action In his brilliant 1951 book The True Believer, the thinker Eric Hoffer pondered why some people are more likely than others to engage in extreme ideological action – action that promotes violence against others in the name of a group or cause. Who is most likely to participate in the behaviors of extreme or fanatical ideologies? Hoffer theorized the root of radicalization lied in low self-esteem and frustration, in the desire to discard and forget oneself by immersing in a larger collective. Since then, over the last 70 years, research has moved away from the self-esteem hypothesis towards a more systematic study of how contexts and motivations shape individuals’ willingness to participate in extreme political action. Prominent psychological theories frequently concentrate on identity and situational factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic circumstance, level of hardship, or the individual’s sense of efficacy, empowerment, or identification with the group (Drury & Reicher, 2005; Van Zomeren et al., 2008). Other theoretical accounts center on high-level motivational factors, specifically on how general human motivations to experience coherence, certainty, and connectedness, can drive individuals to join ideological groups and movements (Jost, Ledgerwood, & Hardin, 2008; Douglas, Sutton, & Cichocka, 2017). These theoretical perspectives have generated important insights about how social, economic, and existential conditions can amplify an individual’s proneness to engage in extreme ideological action. Nonetheless, these lines of research have sometimes overlooked the contribution of deeply-rooted generalized individual differences that are internally embedded in the individual’s brain architecture, and not necessarily shared by all. These traits reflect the individual’s way of processing and evaluating information in general, in their everyday interactions with the world, with any kind of stimuli across a variety of domains, rather than in the specific context of politics. These individual-level attributes are often unconscious and 3 grounded in biological idiosyncrasies in how brains operate, leading to slight – but significant – variations in how different individuals perceive stimuli and make decisions (Miyake & Friedman, 2012). Given the abundance of socio-political opinions and decisions humans form throughout their lifetime, it is thus fruitful to ask whether such implicit information- processing tendencies affect individuals’ propensities for political action. Here we will synthesize recent research suggesting that susceptibility to extreme political action is sculpted by an individual’s biologically-rooted cognitive and affective architecture, not only by their situational and motivational characteristics. Cognition refers to information processing of neutral stimuli in the service of decision-making (e.g. how individuals process visual shapes and judge them according to task instructions) whereas emotion is engaged in processing emotionally-valenced or emotionally-provocative stimuli (e.g. how individuals evaluate fearful or disgusted faces). Although most psychological processes are infused with both cognitive and affective components, for example memory or learning from rewards and punishments, we make this stimulus-oriented distinction for the sake of simplicity and clarity, in accordance with cognitive psychology conventions (Zajonc, 1984). We will further argue that future research should address nuanced cognition-emotion interactions and that this can shed light on the origins of extreme ideological action and the multitude of heterogeneous actors that it attracts. Cognitive Underpinnings of Extreme Political Action Individual differences in proclivities for extreme political action have been shown to relate to implicit cognitive characteristics across multiple psychological domains. One information-processing style that has been illustrated as a core correlate of ideological thought is cognitive rigidity. Cognitive rigidity is marked by a difficulty to adapt behavior in response to changing environments, task demands, and reward contingencies. Cognitively 4 inflexible individuals perform more poorly on tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) or the Alternative Uses Test which require participants to process and respond to visual or linguistic stimuli in an adaptable manner. For instance, in the WCST, participants are instructed to sort cards according to their shape, color, or other visual feature. The card- sorting rule then changes, and individuals who are cognitively flexible are able to change their behavior in accordance with the new rule, while rigid individuals struggle to adapt to the new task demands. Individuals who exhibit cognitive inflexibility in these objective neuropsychological tasks also possess more ideological and dogmatic worldviews (Zmigrod, 2020) in the realm of nationalism (Zmigrod, Rentfrow, & Robbins, 2018), politics (Zmigrod, Rentfrow, & Robbins, 2020; Van Hiel et al., 2016), religiosity (Zmigrod et al., 2019a), and evidence receptivity (Zmigrod et al., 2019b). Importantly, in line with horseshoe theories of political extremism, cognitive rigidity characterizes individuals on the extreme right and extreme left of the political spectrum (Zmigrod, Rentfrow, & Robbins, 2020; Figure 1A), showing that the extremity of the ideology may matter more than its content or mission. In the context of extreme political action, cognitive rigidity predicted a greater willingness to endorse violence to protect an ideological group or cause (Zmigrod et al., 2019c; Figure 1B), as well as a readiness to sacrifice one’s life to save other fellow ingroup members. Notably, individuals who had greater conviction or confidence in their decision to self-sacrifice for the sake of a broader ideological group tended to be more cognitively inflexible across multiple tasks. Individuals’ implicit dispositions in the domain of cognitive rigidity and flexibility can therefore play a significant role in political judgements and behaviors – acting as individual-level factors that augment or reduce the likelihood of engaging in political action. 5 Figure 1. (A) Inverted U-shaped curves in cognitive flexibility across three independent tasks, whereby individuals strongly fused either to the Democratic party (negative partisanship values) or Republican party (positive values) were less cognitively flexible than moderates on the Alternative Uses Test (AUT), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Remote Associates Test (RAT). Reproduced with permission from Zmigrod, Rentfrow, & Robbins (2020). (B) Cognitively rigid participants were more likely to have strong conviction that they would be willing to die in order to save members of their ideological ingroup. Reproduced with permission from Zmigrod, Rentfrow, & Robbins (2019). Rigidity may also manifest in the context of metacognition, that is, the awareness of one’s cognitive capacities and processes. Difficulties in metacognition may drive individuals
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reading List for SGR001F Political Psychology, 7.5 Credits, Third Cycle
    READING LIST 1 9 October 2019 Reg. no. U 2019/471 Reading list for SGR001F Political Psychology, 7.5 credits, third cycle The reading list was approved by the vice dean 9 October 2019 and is valid from the autumn semester 2019. Books Huddy, Leonie, David O. Sears and Jack S. Levy (eds.). 2013. Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology: Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. (Selected chapters, available online) Articles and book chapters Altemeyer, Bob. 2004. Highly dominating, highly authoritarian personalities. The Journal of Social Psychology 144: 421-447. Bäck, Emma A., Hanna Bäck and Holly Knapton. 2015. Group Belongingness and Collective Action: Effects of Need to Belong and Rejection Sensitivity on Willingness to Participate in Protests Activities. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 56: 537-544. Bäck, Hanna and Marc Debus. 2019. When do women speak? A comparative analysis of the role of gender in legislative debates. Political Studies 67 (3): 576-596. Barzegar, Abbas, Shawn Powers and Nagham El Karhili. 2016. Civic Approaches to Confronting Violent Extremism. Sector Recommendations and Best Practices. Georgia University. (59 pages) Borum, Randy. 2011. Radicalization into Violent Extremism I: A Review of Social Science Theories. Journal of Strategic Security 4: 7-36. Borum, Randy. 2011. Radicalization into Violent Extremism II: A Review of Conceptual Models and Empirical Research. Journal of Strategic Security 4: 37-62. Brader, Ted and George E. Marcus. 2013. Emotion and Political Psychology. In Huddy, Leonie, David O. Sears and Jack S. Levy (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology: Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Carney, Dana R., John T.
    [Show full text]
  • How Should Neuroscience Study Emotions? by Distinguishing Emotion States, Concepts, and Experiences Ralph Adolphs
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Caltech Authors - Main Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 2017, 24–31 doi: 10.1093/scan/nsw153 Advance Access Publication Date: 19 October 2016 Original article How should neuroscience study emotions? by distinguishing emotion states, concepts, and experiences Ralph Adolphs Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, HSS 228-77, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In this debate with Lisa Feldman Barrett, I defend a view of emotions as biological functional states. Affective neuroscience studies emotions in this sense, but it also studies the conscious experience of emotion (‘feelings’), our ability to attribute emotions to others and to animals (‘attribution’, ‘anthropomorphizing’), our ability to think and talk about emotion (‘concepts of emotion’, ‘semantic knowledge of emotion’) and the behaviors caused by an emotion (‘expression of emotions’, ‘emotional reactions’). I think that the most pressing challenge facing affective neuroscience is the need to carefully distinguish between these distinct aspects of ‘emotion’. I view emotion states as evolved functional states that regulate complex behavior, in both people and animals, in response to challenges that instantiate recurrent environmental themes. These functional states, in turn, can also cause conscious experiences (feelings), and their effects and our memories for those effects also contribute to our semantic
    [Show full text]
  • Emotion and Public Attention to Political Issues
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Political Science Department -- Theses, Dissertations, and Student Scholarship Political Science, Department of 4-2013 Emotion and Public Attention to Political Issues Michael W. Gruszczynski University of Nebraska-Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/poliscitheses Part of the American Politics Commons Gruszczynski, Michael W., "Emotion and Public Attention to Political Issues" (2013). Political Science Department -- Theses, Dissertations, and Student Scholarship. 24. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/poliscitheses/24 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Political Science, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science Department -- Theses, Dissertations, and Student Scholarship by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. EMOTION AND PUBLIC ATTENTION TO POLITICAL ISSUES By Michael W. Gruszczynski A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Major: Political Science Under the Supervision of Professor John R. Hibbing Lincoln, Nebraska April, 2013 EMOTION AND PUBLIC ATTENTION TO POLITICAL ISSUES Michael W. Gruszczynski, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2013 Adviser: John R. Hibbing Which mechanisms underlie the orientation of public attention to political issues? Though research on media agenda-setting has been one of the most successful enterprises in political communication and behavior, little is known of the actual processes that drive this phenomenon. I hypothesize that inherent in all environmental stimuli is emotional information, and that it is this information that drives the linkages between media and public agendas.
    [Show full text]
  • Positive Emotion Dispositions Differentially Associated with Big Five Personality and Attachment Style
    The Journal of Positive Psychology, April 2006; 1(2): 61–71 Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style MICHELLE N. SHIOTA, DACHER KELTNER, & OLIVER P. JOHN University of California at Berkeley, USA Abstract Although theorists have proposed the existence of multiple distinct varieties of positive emotion, dispositional positive affect is typically treated as a unidimensional variable in personality research. We present data elaborating conceptual and empirical differences among seven positive emotion dispositions in their relationships with two core personality constructs, the ‘‘Big Five’’ and adult attachment style. We found that the positive emotion dispositions were differentially associated with self- and peer-rated Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism. We also found that different adult attachment styles were associated with different kinds of emotional rewards. Findings support the theoretical utility of differentiating among several dispositional positive emotion constructs in personality research. Keywords: Emotion; positive emotion; positive psychology; personality; Big Five; attachment Downloaded By: [CDL Journals Account] At: 22:51 20 December 2007 Introduction Shiota, Campos, Keltner, & Hertenstein, 2004). In the present investigation we explored distinctions Philosophers and writers have long debated the nature among the major personality correlates of several of happiness, reaching a wide range of conclusions, corresponding positive emotion dispositions. Prior but never a consensually accepted definition. studies have documented robust relationships Recently scientists have joined this enterprise, creat- between global positive affect and the Big Five trait ing a flourishing line of inquiry: a Psycinfo search Extraversion, as well as secure adult attachment for ‘‘happiness’’ now yields over 4,500 citations.
    [Show full text]
  • Modeling Memes: a Memetic View of Affordance Learning
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2011 Modeling Memes: A Memetic View of Affordance Learning Benjamin D. Nye University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, Other Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering Commons, Social Psychology Commons, and the Statistical Models Commons Recommended Citation Nye, Benjamin D., "Modeling Memes: A Memetic View of Affordance Learning" (2011). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 336. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/336 With all thanks to my esteemed committee, Dr. Silverman, Dr. Smith, Dr. Carley, and Dr. Bordogna. Also, great thanks to the University of Pennsylvania for all the opportunities to perform research at such a revered institution. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/336 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Modeling Memes: A Memetic View of Affordance Learning Abstract This research employed systems social science inquiry to build a synthesis model that would be useful for modeling meme evolution. First, a formal definition of memes was proposed that balanced both ontological adequacy and empirical observability. Based on this definition, a systems model for meme evolution was synthesized from Shannon Information Theory and elements of Bandura's Social Cognitive Learning Theory. Research in perception, social psychology, learning, and communication were incorporated to explain the cognitive and environmental processes guiding meme evolution. By extending the PMFServ cognitive architecture, socio-cognitive agents were created who could simulate social learning of Gibson affordances.
    [Show full text]
  • PS4417G: Special Topics in Political Psychology Course Description Course Text Course Assessment
    PS4417G: Special Topics in Political Psychology Department of Political Science – Western University, Winter 2020 Wednesday 1:30pm-3:30pm, SSC 4255 Instructor: Dr. Mathieu Turgeon Email: [email protected] Office hours: Tuesday from 10am-12pm or by appointment Course description The field of political psychology is vast and cuts through many subfields of political science. The focus in this course is about how theories of psychology apply to explain people’s political at- titudes and behaviours. In particular, the course is about how people receive, process, and use information they receive from their environment, interactions with others, the news media, and political elites to develop, change or maintain their political attitudes and make political decisions. Topics to be explored include candidate evaluation and choice, political knowledge and misinfor- mation, media effects, political polarization, and racial prejudice. Students will also be introduced to basic notions of the experimental design, a requisite to understanding the work produced in political psychology. Course text The required text for this course is: Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Other readings are available electronically through Western Libraries and the course’s OWL site. Course assessment Students will be assessed in many different ways, including class participation, reading quizzes, short essays, and a final take-home exam. • Class participation (12%): students will be responsible to sign up for leading class discussion at least three (3) times during the semester. • 3 reading quizzes each worth 6%: I expect students to do all the required readings.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religious Shaping of Feeling: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory
    Santa Clara University Scholar Commons Psychology College of Arts & Sciences 12-19-2014 The elir gious shaping of feeling: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory Jeanne L. Tsai Birgit Koopmann-Holm Santa Clara University, [email protected] Masako Miyazaki Cameron Ochs Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.scu.edu/psych Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Tsai, J. L., Koopmann-Holm, B., Miyazaki, M., & Ochs, C. (2013). The er ligious shaping of feeling: Implications of Affect Valuation Theory. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press. Copyright © 2014 Guilford Press. Reprinted with permission of The uiG lford Press. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Arts & Sciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 14 The Religious Shaping of Feeling Implications of Affect Valuation Theory Jeanne L. Tsai, Birgit Koopmann-Holm, Masako Miyazaki, and Camaron Ochs Qver 80% of the world population identifies with a specific religion (Adherents. com, 2007; Central Intelligence Agency, 2011). For some individuals, this religion struc­ tures and shapes every dimension of their daily lives: what they wear, with whom they spend time, where they go, and what they eat. As important, but perhaps less overt, is how religion shapes people's psyches. Indeed, one of the major functions of religion is to provide followers with a way of understanding and coping with their life circumstances (see Pargament, Falb, Ano, & Wachholtz, Chapter 28, this volume; Park, 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding
    SEPTEMBER 2009 Conflict is an inherent and legitimate part of social and political life, but in many places conflict turns violent, inflicting grave costs in terms of lost lives, degraded governance, and destroyed livelihoods. The costs and consequences of conflict, crisis, and state failure have become unacceptably high. Violent conflict dramatically disrupts traditional development and it can spill over FROM THE DIRECTOR borders and reduce growth and prosperity across entire regions. Religion is often viewed as a motive for conflict and has emerged as a key compo- nent in many current and past conflicts. However, religion does not always drive violence; it is also an integral factor in the peacebuilding and reconciliation process. Development assistance and programming does not always consider this link- age, nor does it fully address the complexity of the relationship between religion and conflict. As a main mobilizing force in many societies, proper engagement of religion and its leaders is crucial. This Toolkit is intended to help USAID staff and their implementing partners un- derstand the opportunities and challenges inherent to development programming in conflicts where religion is a key component. Like other guides in this series, this Toolkit discusses key issues that need to be considered when development as- sistance is provided in religious contexts and identifies lessons that been emerged from USAID’s experience implementing such programs. However compared to other types of programming, USAID experience engaging religion and religious actors to prevent conflict or build peace is modest. Thus, recognizing that there is still significantly more to be learned on this critical topic, this toolkit contains summaries of four actual USAID programs that have successfully engaged religious actors.
    [Show full text]
  • Empathy: a Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach Lian T
    Social and Personality Psychology Compass 3/1 (2009): 94–110, 10.1111/j.1751-9004.2008.00154.x Empathy: A Social Cognitive Neuroscience Approach Lian T. Rameson* and Matthew D. Lieberman Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles Abstract There has been recent widespread interest in the neural underpinnings of the experience of empathy. In this review, we take a social cognitive neuroscience approach to understanding the existing literature on the neuroscience of empathy. A growing body of work suggests that we come to understand and share in the experiences of others by commonly recruiting the same neural structures both during our own experience and while observing others undergoing the same experience. This literature supports a simulation theory of empathy, which proposes that we understand the thoughts and feelings of others by using our own mind as a model. In contrast, theory of mind research suggests that medial prefrontal regions are critical for understanding the minds of others. In this review, we offer ideas about how to integrate these two perspectives, point out unresolved issues in the literature, and suggest avenues for future research. In a way, most of our lives cannot really be called our own. We spend much of our time thinking about and reacting to the thoughts, feelings, intentions, and behaviors of others, and social psychology has demonstrated the manifold ways that our lives are shared with and shaped by our social relationships. It is a marker of the extreme sociality of our species that those who don’t much care for other people are at best labeled something unflattering like ‘hermit’, and at worst diagnosed with a disorder like ‘psychopathy’ or ‘autism’.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotion in Psychotherapy
    Emotion in Psychotherapy Leslie S. Greenberg York University Jeremy D. Safran Clarke Institute of Psychiatry ABSTRACT." The therapeutic process involves many dif- psychotherapy field to develop an integrative and empir- ferent types of affective phenomena. No single therapeutic ically informed perspective on the role of emotion in perspective has been able to encompass within its own change. This will provide an orienting framework for in- theoretical framework all the ways in which emotion plays vestigating the diverse array of different emotional phe- a role in therapeutic change. A comprehensive, constructive nomena traditionally focused on by different therapy tra- theory of emotion helps transcend the differences in the ditions. therapeutic schools by viewing emotion as a complex syn- thesis of expressive motor, schematic, and conceptual in- Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Emotion formation that provides organisms with information about Psychotherapists have long concerned themselves with their responses to situations that helps them orient adap- working with people's emotional experience. Different tively in the environment. In addition to improved theory, theoretical perspectives have tended to emphasize differ- increased precision in the assessment of affective func- ent aspects of emotional functioning. As a result, the psy- tioning in therapy, as well as greater specification of dif- chotherapy literature has failed to produce an integrative, ferent emotional change processes and means of facili- comprehensive perspective on emotion capable of illu- tating these, will allow the role of emotion in change to minating the full array of emotional phenomena relevant be studied more effectively. A number of different change to psychotherapy. In this section, we will briefly highlight processes involving emotion are discussed, as well as some of the important themes characterizing three of the principles of emotionally focused intervention that help major therapeutic perspectives on emotion: psychoanal- access emotion and promote emotional restructuring.
    [Show full text]
  • What Scientists Who Study Emotion Agree About Research-Article5969922015
    PPSXXX10.1177/1745691615596992EkmanWhat Scientists Who Study Emotion Agree About 596992research-article2015 Perspectives on Psychological Science 2016, Vol. 11(1) 31 –34 What Scientists Who Study © The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Emotion Agree About DOI: 10.1177/1745691615596992 pps.sagepub.com Paul Ekman University of California, San Francisco and Paul Ekman Group, LLC Abstract In recent years, the field of emotion has grown enormously—recently, nearly 250 scientists were identified who are studying emotion. In this article, I report a survey of the field, which revealed high agreement about the evidence regarding the nature of emotion, supporting some of both Darwin’s and Wundt’s 19th century proposals. Topics where disagreements remain were also exposed. Keywords emotion survey, universality, basic emotions, facial expression In considering how emotions might be distinguished one and other issues as well. Recent years have also seen the from another, two approaches were proposed in the 19th rise of respected scientific journals devoted to emotion, century. Darwin (1872/1998) took for granted that emo- such as Emotion, and anthologies (Evans & Cruse, 2004; tions are modular (or discrete) and used terms such as Soloman, 2003) presenting the diverse views of philoso- anger, fear, disgust, and so forth to specify separate mod- phers, sociologists, psychologists, and neuroscientists. ules. Allport (1924), Ekman and Friesen (1969), Izard The purpose of the survey was to evaluate the status (1971), Tomkins (1962), and Woodworth (1938) all uti- of this field of research today. Were disagreements lized very similar approaches to organizing emotions and revealed in 1994 (albeit using different methods) resolved posited many of the same modules.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion, Nationalism and Demography: False Consciousness, Real Consequences1
    Religion, Nationalism and Demography: False Consciousness, Real Consequences1 Jon Anson Department of Social Work Ben Gurion University of the Negev 84105 Beer Sheva, Israel 1Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the Sociology of Religion Study Group of the British Sociological Association seminar on Demography and Religion, Lancaster, 14 April, 2005; BSPS Annual Meeting, Southampton, 2006, and the ASEN conference on Religion and Demography, LSE, 2006. My thanks to Ofra Anson, to David Voas, and to the participants at all these meetings, as well as many others, unknown and unnamed, for their comments and suggestions. Naturally, responsibility for all shortcomings lies with myself alone. Religion, Nationalism and Demography: False Consciousness, Real Consequences Abstract We may treat religion as an immanent belief system which directly guides human action, or as a social phenomenon in which the actual content of the belief is contingent. The first course leads into a series of contradictions: neither the beliefs nor their consequences are consistent, nor eternal over time. As social phenomena, however, religions differ from nationalisms only in the referent of their expressed belief: an otherworldly sacred being or a this-worldly sacred community, and the two are often conflated. If in the past men killed and died for their gods, today they do so for their country. Demographic events, childbirth and death, may similarly be treated as individual events or as social phenomena subject to group, and not just individual, control. In this paper we consider the relations between these two sets of social phenomena, religion and nationalism on one hand, demographic processes on the other, and the contradictions inherent in ignoring the social element in the explanation of their interrelationship.
    [Show full text]